


The Shrub

by 50_daisies



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: BadBoyHalo is Sapnap’s father, Canon Compliant, Childhood Dream Team, Dream says “ass”, M/M, Minor Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Mushroom George, Young Dream, Young George, Young Sapnap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29853708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/50_daisies/pseuds/50_daisies
Summary: (Just a little fic about how I imagine the Dream Team met.)The Shrub was going to take a lot of getting used to. Pretty lucky Sapnap and Dream are just the teens for the job!
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Kudos: 18





	The Shrub

**Author's Note:**

> It/Its pronouns are used for a suspected non-human entity that turns out to be human, so warning if that rubs you the wrong way

Surprisingly, they weren’t scared by The Shrub. Dream had technically been the one to find it, but he and Sapnap definitely split the work of getting to know The Shrub equally. They were running in the woods, large thick stick swinging in Sapnap’s small hands as Dream sprinted away in mock fear. After a brief scan of the landscape before him, Dream jumped around to face Sapnap. He waved his fingers around the side of his head, and although a prototype mask covered his mouth, Sapnap could see the corners of Dream’s eyes turn up in a genuinely mocking smirk. And then Dream tripped. The back of his legs smacked against a shrub he hadn’t noticed, and he panicked. With a spasmed start, he fell backwards. His shoulders landed squarely on a large branch, a number of smaller sticks colliding with his back, and breaking off the main branch, and a particularly blunt rock nudged into the curve of his spine. 

Sapnap yelped and lunged to help Dream up, and The Shrub… screamed. It was a high-pitched cry, and it pushed itself back up against a nearby tree. It stood to full height, something shrubs aren’t known to do. Dream sat up without help, and stared at The Shrub. Sapnap wasted no time in helping Dream, lifting the bottom hem of Dream’s shirt and pressing the flat section of his balled fist against the large red mark where the rock had pressed into his back. His hand has always been warmer than normal, and they worked well to calm the ache of injuries gained where kids play. (It was also an excuse to cower behind the older boy.) They both watched The Shrub shake, back pressed against the tree trunk. It seemed terrified, chest heaving as it stared down at the children who’d discovered it. 

The Shrub was tall enough, standing an average length under the first fledgeling branches of the teenaged tree. (It was nothing compared to Sapnap’s father, Sapnap noted. Although his dad could hardly count as anything close to fare in a height comparison.) Its messy dark brown hair was standing up in a million different directions, and was made even more messy by the thick-rimmed glasses knocked askew, which its overgrown bangs laid on top of. Underneath a large cape of various types of leaves, wildflowers and a few patches of moss, it wore a large blue shirt that it practically drowned in. The shirt was tucked into a pair of dark blue slacks, ripped to shreds at the bottom, and a few sizes too small as evident by the strain in the seams. The Shrub was barefoot, and it didn’t seem to mind. 

“Uh...y-your pants don’t fit…” Sapnap mumbled. 

“Pants…? Oh! My name is George, and I’m 17 rings old.” The Shrub, George, looked on patiently. 

Sapnap and Dream looked at each other before Dream cautiously said, “Rings? Like on your finger or ring like a bell?” George stared at them in disbelief. It pulled its glasses off, and stared at both of them intensely. It mumbled a disappointed few sounds after a second or so then quickly squatted down to the mud and began drawing. 

“Rings,” it stated matter-of-factly down at it’s drawing. It was scratched into the soft earth in large juts made by his finger. It’d drawn it upside down to face Dream and Sapnap, and the drawing seemed to almost be a tree. 

“Oh! Rings in a tree trunk! One ring in a tree trunk is one year of growth,” Sapnap proudly proclaimed, “Bad taught me that.” George nodded enthusiastically. 

“Tree…” it mumbed, seeming to taste the words, testing them out. It pointed to itself suddenly. 

“Mushroom Tree Boy!” Then pointing to Sapnap, “Demon’s Boy,” then to Dream. He reached out slowly, crawling across the ground to reach Dream. His hand made steady contact with the medium sized sheep’s horns that were attached to a sort of harness, which was then attached to Dream’s mask. George didn’t seem to notice the length of black fabric connecting the horns and fabric, though. 

“Sheep horns… still just boy.” George reached out slowly, running its hand along the horns, following the curve from their base, which sat around Dream’s ears, around and around until the dulled tip a few inches away from Dream’s face on either side. As it did this, Sapnap watched the corners of Dream’s eyes turn up with a smile. Dream slowly reached behind his head, holding up his pointer finger while instructing, “Wait a minute,” though he was sure George was unaware of most of those words’ meanings. 

Although George did stop, it left it’s hand on the horns, and watched as Dream untied the fabric strips holding his mask-horn hybrid harness together. Its face went pale as the horns fell away in its hand. Dream watched on in delight, a now-visible smile showing as he watched George examine the material. George held the horns in its hands, and fell back onto the ground. 

The Shrub did something akin to screaming, yelling half-English swears, half-animalistic cries. It threw the mask and horns against an adjacent tree, effectively shattering it. With anger and shock he forgot he had, Dream stood, and loomed over George. 

“I made that myself, you asshole!” Dream shouted, gesturing vaguely to the mask, lying broken in the woods.

Sapnap stood too, probably not the best idea, and put a hand on Dream’s shoulder, “Dude, calm down! He’s like a forest guy, maybe he got scared. He was clearly really confused!” Dream looked to Sapnap, then back down as George. He looked just in time to see George’s shoulders slump. 

“Ayo… did he pass out?” Sapnap mumbled, now staring down at George. Dream nodded, jaw solidly landed on the floor. With a cautious motion, Sapnap reached down, sliding the glasses away from George’s face. The bag’s under its eyes were deep, flushed purpley-grey, and it’s long eyelashes were made to look darker because of the snow-pale coloration of its cheeks. 

The two boys stared at The Shrub for a long time before they did anything helpful.

\-----------

George woke up in a foreign room, on a foreign mattress. He realized with a start that he was actually  _ inside _ a room. For the first time in his life he was within the walls that he so often gazed in on. Outside of the room, his ears picked up a conversation, something he did often as well. 

“-biologically just a male human teenager. He’s been living like any other kid, just without a roof over his head or a change of clothes. His clothes have been getting cleaned and properly dried, though.”

The demon’s boy spoke then, saying, “He knew some words like sheep and mushroom, but mostly just grunted and yelled, y’know?”

The regular boy, “He picked up words fast, though. I called his drawing a tree and I guess he figured out what I meant. Called himself a tree too.” 

“Maybe he meant he was of the forest, of the trees,” The first voice reassured. “ _I am of the forest!_ ” George thought, proud the voice was smart enough. 

Done with their conversation, George looked around his room. Charts adorned the soft grey walls, detailing human anatomy, as well as demon, enderman, and piglin anatomy. A chart with a layer-by-layer breakdown of a bird’s wings, and a single, smaller chart with a salmon skeleton breakdown were pasted on the wall behind him, which he rolled around on his bed to see. A few standing skeletons (just plastic models) balanced in the corner, but George still felt a chill roll up his skin at the idea that his bones could end up like that. As he surveyed further, he noticed a mirror in the wall with a large door. With no effort, George slid out of bed and waltzed up to it, gazing at his features. As he began opening his mouth to look at his teeth, and attempting to brush his nappy hair away to see, conversation on the other side of the wall stopped. 

The door burst open and George nearly fell over again, as the two boys from earlier filed in. After them followed a demon, a tall demon. 

“I’m Sapnap!” The demon’s boy said. 

With a coy smile George said, “I’m George.”

The regular boy wheezed a laugh and conceded, “I’m Dream.”

“I’m George.” George honestly feared for Dream’s health at this point, as he wheezed harder, and clutched his chest. 

“Everyone calls me Bad,” The demon explained, bending down at his waist to meet George, and extended a hand. With a smile George reached out as well, too excited to finally get to participate in a gesture he’d seen so often, that he forgot his apprehension about the demon. They shook hands, and George beamed. 

“Bad is good,” George stated with a smile. The demon stared wide-eyed, mouth opening slightly to reveal his teeth. His mouth opened wider in a smile equal to George’s and George felt pride swell in his chest at how he didn’t flinch when confronted with the demon’s teeth (fangs?).

“You boys know how to pick ‘em!” Bad exclaimed and Sapnap began laughing too. 

“So, Georgie,” Sap asked after Dream has begun breathing normally again, “How much of what we’re saying do you know? Like you knew sheep and good, right?” 

George mulled over his next words carefully, “Most words. It’s harder to...uhm.. Speak! It’s harder to speak than understand.” 

“Oh gosh! That’s great!” Bad said, having not lost his smile. George stared patiently, waiting for the next person to ask him a question. Bad still smiled, while Sapnap looked up at Bad with a confusing expression. George’s mismatched eyes met Dream’s and the boy spoke with hesitation. 

“Where’s your family?” The question was a demand. There was a nervous tension in his voice that George wished he’d missed. Dream was demanding knowledge from George, knowledge that Dream wasn’t sure he wanted. 

With effort to try to seem nonchalant, George answered, “I dunno...I was born of the trees and mushrooms…” Dream didn’t seem relaxed enough yet, so he added, “I don’t have to go back, though…”

They all smiled warmly at George. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
